San Clemente is a small indigenous village in the northern Andes in Ecuador, at a height of 2890 meters. Most of inhabitants of San Clemente belong to the "Quichuas Karanquis".
We stayed with a lovely family for a few days, in a very simple house looking out to a volcano called Imbabura.
The altitude here is challenging, our breathe is short when we walk and feeling tired as we adjust. It was our first backpacking go with the flow experience. We followed directions to the house but there was noone there... they weren't expecting us for some reason so some figuring out and then a wait followed by a walk up and down a gorge with our packs on!
We spent our days learning embroidery from our host Antonia who belongs to a womens cooperative and joining in with her other daily tasks like moving her 2 cows, feeding the pig, grinding corn by hand into flour, cooking tortillas over the fire, learning about medicinal plants, washing our clothes in the outdoor sink, preparing food. It was a simple, slow few days with many insights and nights spent by the fire listening to juan play accordian and flute. Each family has a pig, a field of corn, a veggie patch, a llama, some chickens and guinea pigs.
The girls were amazing and went with the flow of the life there, language and food and the whole experience. Apart from an english teacher in the school we were the only 'gringos' staying in the whole village and so it really was an immersion into another, more ancient way of life.
We ate corn and potatoes every day in many different forms as well as simple soups with vegetables and a grain. We were all struck by how little 'stuff' they had. We have cleared so much these past few weeks yet us there with our backpacks still had more books, gadgets and stuff. Bringing questions of what is enough? and what will support us to live more simply?
A guinea pig from Antonia's sister was bought over one evening to be prepared for lunch and cooked over the open fire. It is prepared whole so is a rather disconcerting sight! Jamie after turning it by hand over the fire managed to eat some. Jamie: From seeing Antonia prepare it the day before, i was questioning wether i should have said i was vegetarian, turning the little fella with a stick through its back side was tricky! especially when she turned it around and it was staring at me as i turned it!!! i did eat some out of respect for the effort and tradition of them making it, but i have to say, i wont be ordering it anytime soon in a restaurant!
A special moment on the last night of our stay was a cleansing ceremony that we took part in as a family with a 5th generation Shaman from the community. Felt like a moment to draw a line on all our preparation in coming away and everything before that and step over into a place of possibility and being open to change and the creation of new stories for us all.
It was such a gift to spend time with a community where Ecology and Respect of nature are essential parts of the culture through the worship of "Pachamama", Mother-Earth. Manuel spoke to us about how there are 3 different levels of pachamama, sky, earth and below earth, each with its own qualities, gifts and things to respect. Also how the masculine and feminine is represented in everything, masculine rocks are from the earth, feminine ones like lava from volcanoes; masculine water is fast flowing while feminine water was gentle, still water; masculine plants were those that flowered whilst the feminine ones were those that fruit.
Dreams are held as sacred and neighbours and friends share their dreams with each other. Someone in the community was dying and Manuel and Antonia both shared how their dreams were sad. Both their own individual dreams but sharing a communality that we have lost sight of.
The wisdom we experienced there feels like it is beyond words and still trickling through. As we came down the hill into the town of Ibarra to catch the bus for our onward journey, the contrast was stark, noise, shops, pollution, progress?....